1-1     By:  Gallego (Senate Sponsor - Shapleigh)              H.B. No. 747
 1-2           (In the Senate - Received from the House May 10, 1999;
 1-3     May 10, 1999, read first time and referred to Committee on Health
 1-4     Services; May 14, 1999, reported favorably by the following vote:
 1-5     Yeas 5, Nays 0; May 14, 1999, sent to printer.)
 1-6                            A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
 1-7                                   AN ACT
 1-8     relating to certain evaluations made by the governing body of a
 1-9     hospital district, hospital authority, or public hospital.
1-10           BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-11           SECTION 1.  Section 1.03(a)(6), Medical Practice Act (Article
1-12     4495b, Vernon's Texas Civil Statutes), is amended to read as
1-13     follows:
1-14                 (6)  "Medical peer review committee" or "professional
1-15     review body" means a committee of a health-care entity, the
1-16     governing board of a health-care entity, or the medical staff of a
1-17     health-care entity, provided the committee or medical staff
1-18     operates pursuant to written bylaws that have been approved by the
1-19     policy-making body or the governing board of the health-care entity
1-20     and authorized to evaluate the quality of medical and health-care
1-21     services or the competence of physicians, including those functions
1-22     specified by Section 85.204, Health and Safety Code, and its
1-23     subsequent amendments.  Such a committee includes the employees and
1-24     agents of the committee, including assistants, investigators,
1-25     intervenors, attorneys, and any other persons or organizations that
1-26     serve the committee in any capacity. The term "medical peer review
1-27     committee" or "professional review body" includes the governing
1-28     body of a public hospital owned or operated by a governmental
1-29     entity, the governing body of a hospital authority created under
1-30     Chapter 262 or 264, Health and Safety Code, and the governing body
1-31     of a hospital district created under Article IX, Texas
1-32     Constitution, but only:
1-33                       (A)  in relation to the governing body's
1-34     evaluation of the competence of a physician or the quality of
1-35     medical and health care services provided by the public hospital,
1-36     hospital authority, or hospital district; and
1-37                       (B)  to the extent that the evaluation under
1-38     Paragraph (A) involves discussions or records that specifically or
1-39     necessarily identify an individual patient or physician.
1-40           SECTION 2.  The importance of this legislation and the
1-41     crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
1-42     emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
1-43     constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
1-44     days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
1-45     and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
1-46     passage, and it is so enacted.
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